Non UK NEW YORK OCTOBER

jpgreenwood

jpgreenwood

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All booked up for 4 days in NYC. Going with family, for 18th birthday. Staying Times Square. I've bought a Panasonic LX100 which has an excellent reputation, and a table-top tripod for some LE shots.
I'm now worried that the 24-75mm fixed lens is going to be too restrictive.

I will be mainly shooting around the streets of Manhattan and over Brooklyn bridge to an area called "DUMBO" (down under Manhattan Bridge overpass). Apparently the views looking back at the cityscape are awesome and this is where I want my night shots from.
I will have good comfy shoes on and intend on covering a lot of ground in the short time available. I will be going over on the free Staten Island Ferry, and maybe doing the Harbour Lights boat cruise. Definitely 9/11 and I've been told the best view over the city is from the "Top of the Rock".
Can anyone advise if the TOTR view over the city is through glass or is it an open air terrace?
I also want to visit Grand Central station and St Patricks cathedral.

Any other advice people can offer?
 
As Keeweeman said - the glass is only on the lower deck and even then you can probably fit a lens through it. The upper deck has no glass, and concrete fence posts which you can fit a mini Tripod on.

If you're in Dumbo check out the classic (but cliche) view of the Williamsburg Bridge framing the Empire State Building from Washington street, and the amazing view of Manhattan from Brooklyn Bridge Park...you will love it! :woot:

26170228_10155890907227440_1201795684454256476_o.jpg
 
the other thing to bear in mind with the observation decks is that tripods aren't allowed, you could get away with a mini one but not a full sized one. That being said the concrete pillars are easy enough to put the camera on top of too
 
Firstly can I say that I am envious of you!
We went to New York at the end of Sept/beginning Oct in 2014 and had the most wonderful time.
I did not know what to take but eventually decided on D7000 with the 18-70 lens - just a bit longer than the LX100. I cannot remember any circumstances, given the types of shot that I wanted, where I needed any other lens.

I think in the signature at the end of this post there is a link to my Flickr. If so, look at albums 'New York' and 'Urban' where you will see a few shots.

TOTR is a 'must' as there is a terrific 360 degree view, including Central Park, Chrysler Building and SoL in the distance. It can be busy and there was a ticketing system when we were there, so I suggest that you go as early in your holiday as possible and suss out whether you need to book a time slot. My recollection was that the times going in were limited but once inside, you could be there as long as you wanted.
We went latish afternoon . It was busy at first but thinned out as it got later - which of course is the best time for capturing dusk and building lights.
There is a glass screen around the main viewing platform but there are gaps against which it is easy to poke a lens. The LX100 lens may even pass through. See the toggers on the left.
I think that @keeweeman is correct in that tripods are not allowed.

upload_2018-8-17_15-28-9.jpeg


If you get the time, a walk along the HIgh Line ( a disused railway line) next to the river Hudson is worthwhile.

Over Brooklyn Bridge is interesting with a lot of potential for shots back at the city as @LojikDub has illustrated.
We went on the ferry to Liberty and Ellis Island and the views back to the city are good. I imagine that the view from Staten island ferry is similar. But get a good position asap to get away from the selfie stick brigade.

9/11 memorial and the museum are excellent - really well done and very moving.

And, finally, I have a LX100 and I would be very content to take it on such a trip. Again on my Flickr if you look at album 'USA 2016' you will see some shots of Blue Ridge Parkway, Nashville and Washington.
All are taken with the LX100 - I particularly like the indoor shots, none of which are taken with flash.
You will be fine with that camera in my view.

Have a good trip, and if you have any further queries I will try to help.
If you have any trouble accessing my Flickr please message me and I can send links in an email.
Alan
 
These are exactly the kinda shots I want. My tripod is literally pocket sized as the LX100 is compact Micro 4/3. I also have a ND8 (I think) so will want those wooden posts LE shot in your post LojikDub.Is this a short walk from Brooklyn Bridge?
 
jpgreenwood said:
These are exactly the kinda shots I want. My tripod is literally pocket sized as the LX100 is compact Micro 4/3. I also have a ND8 (I think) so will want those wooden posts LE shot in your post LojikDub.Is this a short walk from Brooklyn Bridge?
Click to expand...

Yep about 15 minute walk - although it felt like longer when I was there as it was freezing cold :)

With regards to TOTR - I meant a mini tripod which was what I used with my M43 camera. They don't have any issues with those.
 
it isn't an especially long walk from the brooklyn bridge to that view point but if you don't know the area it is easy to get lost. We did it the other way around as we went to that place first after we checked into the hotel so that we could get the sunset so we jumped in a yellow cab (ticked that off the to do list straight away lol) to there and then when we were done found our way to the brooklyn bridge and walked back over that way, the bridge itself was great fun to cross, seems such a silly thing to say but even at half 10 at night it is really busy on there.
The only things i would add to what @superpippo has said would be to plan your trip and expect to spend longer in places than you would expect to, its a big place and if you want to cover everything you would like to see then planning is a must. The 911 museum is really quite sobering, glad we went there but don't think we will go back next time now that we have been once. We found the subway to be really good (useful since our hotel was on the border between the financial district and chinatown so well out of the way). Oh and there is a thing called the new york pass, worth looking into if you plan to visit a lot of the touristy places as many charge admission, it also gives discounts on some food places (every little helps over there). There is a list of things on the website that it gives you access to etc so i would say have a look, add up what it would cost without the pass and compare it to how much the pass does or doesn't save you, in the end i think we just about broke even with ours but that was because we ended up having to miss a couple of things we had planned on using it for like the hop on hop off bus.
 
We are staying in Times Square so will need to know cheapest way to get to Brooklyn Bridge, over to Dumbo, and back again. I will try and get one of those city pass things for 3 different venues. Many people have said don't go for the bigger cards as time can be against you and its too much rushing around. We arrive on a Saturday late afternoon. Tuesday 5pm is free to get into 9/11 museum.
I need to make head n tail of the subway and bus systems for the metro card. I don't really want to use taxis if I can help it.
Also, getting from JFK to Times Sq. Taxis look as though they can add whatever tax and tips on they like. I've heard reports between $75 and $175.
 
If you don’t mind catching the PATH to New Jersey side of river, and anywhere between Newport and weehawken have some phenomenal skyline views if you’re into that sort of thing. Pretty safe area too I found, though the Newport and Hoboken areas are very nice..

If you’re in New York and there’s a game on too, make sure you go watch the rangers play hockey at the garden (msg) or if you’re a devils fan like me head to Newark to catch a game! You can also just about get away with a small camera at the arenas...

Totr better than Empire State purely as you see the ESB from 30 rock. Both are great though. If I recall totr you can use tripods. Small ones more easily. Not quite so easy at ESB.
Get used to the metro too, 31 bucks for a week pass, your feet will thank you. A lot. I’ll try and find some of my shots from there so you can see the viewpoints. It’s all great though.
I also love gantry plaza state park in queens looking back to manhattan, great views and I felt safe there on my own at 1am, despite the walk from metro to there feeling a little sketchy, but actually fine.
 
Also forgot to add, if it’s your first time to nyc it’s cool to taxi from jfk into the city.. if you wanna save a lot of dough tho, then just get the train. Really easy and straight to penn station, and a lot lot cheaper, we do this now when we go over and the amount you save pays for a any number of activities instead.
 
jpgreenwood said:
We are staying in Times Square so will need to know cheapest way to get to Brooklyn Bridge, over to Dumbo, and back again. I will try and get one of those city pass things for 3 different venues. Many people have said don't go for the bigger cards as time can be against you and its too much rushing around. We arrive on a Saturday late afternoon. Tuesday 5pm is free to get into 9/11 museum.
I need to make head n tail of the subway and bus systems for the metro card. I don't really want to use taxis if I can help it.
Also, getting from JFK to Times Sq. Taxis look as though they can add whatever tax and tips on they like. I've heard reports between $75 and $175.
Click to expand...

Wikivoyage has a good summary of the travel options from JFK:

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy_International_Airport

I generally use ride-sharing vans like SuperShuttle.

For travel in NYC, I just use the subway and a MetroCard:

http://web.mta.info/metrocard/mcgtreng.htm

One thing to watch out for is that some of the trains are express services that do not stop at every station, but otherwise it's pretty straightforward.

Be aware that museums that normally charge but offer a free evening (MoMA does this too) tend to be very busy in that period!

TOTR is great. It's worth going at a time when you can still catch the city in daylight, but stay long enough to see the lights come on.

You might want to take quite a long lens to give you plenty of options when shooting Manhattan from Brooklyn Bridge and the surrounding area.
 
jpgreenwood said:
We are staying in Times Square so will need to know cheapest way to get to Brooklyn Bridge, over to Dumbo, and back again. I will try and get one of those city pass things for 3 different venues. Many people have said don't go for the bigger cards as time can be against you and its too much rushing around. We arrive on a Saturday late afternoon. Tuesday 5pm is free to get into 9/11 museum.
I need to make head n tail of the subway and bus systems for the metro card. I don't really want to use taxis if I can help it.
Also, getting from JFK to Times Sq. Taxis look as though they can add whatever tax and tips on they like. I've heard reports between $75 and $175.
Click to expand...

Get the train from the airport, its pretty easy and really cheap. Taxi wise we did it just because we felt like we had to (when in rome etc) but aside from one other occasion where we needed to get back to the hotel sharpish to get ready for the theatre we just used the subway and our feet the rest of the time. The subway is pretty easy to use and just takes a bit of getting used to, admittedly my missus was better at it than i was...
9/11 museum, we had planned on doing it in a couple of hours, it took us closer to 4/5 in the end so make sure you have enough time to get around it and take it all in as it's not a quick visit sort of place. In terms of the cards that makes sense, i don't think we got the most out of ours but i also think some of that was of our own making, it's not just the exhibitions etc but the food places you can get discounts in which is where we messed up really as we could have clawed some of the cash back quite well with those. In the end over the course of 2 days/3 nights we managed to fit in about 16 things, but we were on the go constantly from about 7am until about 1am and it was exhausting. In hindsight we probably should have dropped a couple of things out of the to do list but being completely honest i'm not sure exactly what those would be since we aren't in a position to afford abroad holidays often and so a return trip has only come onto the agenda 3 years later as we plan to go next year.
 
We took our 10th trip to NYC earlier this year, it's fair to say we like it there! First time with the kid as well, NYC through the eyes of a 3 year old is something I'll never forget.

Air Train

I can't recommend this enough from JFK, it's ridiculously cheap, easy and very quick (we managed it with a 3 year old, buggy and luggage!) Just head to the AirTrain within the airport, hop on to Jamaica station (you pay on exit, $5), then jump on an E train (blue line) all the way into Manhattan for $2.25, we got off at 7th Avenue and it was then only a few minutes walk to our Times Square hotel. Our record is 45 minutes airport to Times Square, usually no more than 50 minutes.

Top of the Rock

Well covered by others, but just to throw my hat in to say do it. Always one of my favourite things to do. The Sunrise/Sunset ticket is our usual strategy. As observation decks go it doesn't get any better in terms of camera support, the top level has loads of big flat stone pillars at chest height to pop your camera on. The lower deck is glass as others have mentioned but it has plenty of handy gaps for handheld photography

Went on Holiday... by Chris Harrison, on Flickr

Brooklyn Bridge / DUMBO

We usually either walk across (after getting the subway down to City Hall) or use the A/C line to High Street on the Brooklyn side, then it's just a short walk down to the waterfront. Aim for an hour before sunset as it's a lovely walk around there anyway and the light for that hour or two is much more usable than actual night time. We've found the weather can break quite nicely around sunset, on our last trip the visibility was appalling half an hour before sunset, but we headed down anyway and were treated to a gorgeous evening.

New York Feb 2018 by Chris Harrison, on Flickr


NYC 2013: Sunset by Chris Harrison, on Flickr

The High Line

The rate of development around this is absolutely incredible, on our first visit is was basically derelict either side, now it's a city within a city. There is a very impressive new elevated honeycomb park/walkway being built which is unlike anything I've ever seen. It makes sense to walk from top to bottom as it throws you out in a lovely Greenwich Village area. Access at the top end is kinda in the middle of nowhere, but if you just walk directly west from 34th Street Penn Station you reach the start.

New York Feb 2018 by Chris Harrison, on Flickr

Central Park

Another obvious one, but it's gorgeous in October. You don't need any particular plan of attack, just have a wander round.

NYC 2013: Central Park by Chris Harrison, on Flickr
 
wow that's great thanks. I cant remember what time we arrive so will look at transport links. There are 4 of us and we will have luggage so a $70 taxi is what looks the best option after a long flight. Or $29 for the 4 of us on the trains???
 
I’m currently on holiday in Cape Cod, having spent the weekend in New York. Equipment wise, I’ve brought my D810, 20mm, 24-85 and an LX100. A bit more reach would have been nice when I was looking back at the city from Staten Island - I did consider part-exing the lens for the 24-120, but I decided I wanted less weight and bulk so I stuck with what I had. The LX100 is primarily for video and for my daughter to use. To be honest I’ve probably used my IPhone as much as the other cameras and have been posting on Facebook and Instagram on the move from this.
Top of the Rock was good, got there first thing rather than the evening, and there were no queues. We also did a Gray Line bus tour which was well worth it to see as much of the city in the limited time we had. The Staten Island ferry is worth getting (it’s free) to get a close-ish look at the Statue of Liberty. The queue to get to the boats for the statue were about half a mile long mid afternoon so we didn’t bother. Definitely worth capitalising on the jet lag to get to places early if you can!
 
Thanks for this thread. We're off to New York in November for 5 days so really interested in what people say who have been before. I think Wifey has a list of things she wants to do - me personally I'd be just happy pounding the streets taking it all in :D
 
jpgreenwood said:
wow that's great thanks. I cant remember what time we arrive so will look at transport links. There are 4 of us and we will have luggage so a $70 taxi is what looks the best option after a long flight. Or $29 for the 4 of us on the trains???
Click to expand...

If the train gets you from A to B then they are fine. Save the cash for a nice meal.
 
LojikDub said:
As Keeweeman said - the glass is only on the lower deck and even then you can probably fit a lens through it. The upper deck has no glass, and concrete fence posts which you can fit a mini Tripod on.

If you're in Dumbo check out the classic (but cliche) view of the Williamsburg Bridge framing the Empire State Building from Washington street, and the amazing view of Manhattan from Brooklyn Bridge Park...you will love it! :woot:

View attachment 132524
Click to expand...

Watch the tide time and the wind speed. It is possible to get some amazing reflection in the Hudson river.
 
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